Over three quarters of Iraq's population is Arab, which
is an ethnic group that originated from the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs in Iraq,
like most Arabs today, are a combination of people; however maintain a primarily
Arab ethnicity. About a fifth of the population is ethnically Kurd, which is an
ethnic group composed of various ethnicities most closely related to the Persians,
but quite distantly. There are additional ethnic groups in Iraq, but none in substantial
numbers.

Language

Arabic is the only official language in Iraq, although Kurdish
is recognized regionally. The written form of Arabic is called Modern Standard Arabic
(written in the Arabic script), which gives the language consistency across countries
from a written perspective. The spoken dialects of Arabic are so drastic from location
to location that Arabic speakers in Iraq may not even understand Arabic speakers
from a country further away, like Morocco. Obviously the dialect of Arabic in Iraq
is most closely related to the dialects spoken in nearby countries like Syria and
Saudi Arabia.

Arabic is a Semitic language; other closely related Semitic languages include Amharic
(Ethiopia) and Hebrew. More distantly related are languages like Berber (North Africa)
as well as historic languages including Phoenician and ancient Egyptian. Kurdish
is a Persian language, most closely related to other Persian languages, including
Farsi.

There are a number of ethnic minorities that speak less common languages, including
Turkmen, Assyrian, and Armenian. For most of these people, Arabic is also learned
and is the most common language of communication between groups. English is the
most commonly taught second language in the country and many educated people speak
at least a minimal amount of English if they are not completely fluent.

Religion

Muslim is the official religion of Iraq as Shia Muslims make
up nearly two thirds of the population and Sunnis make up most of the last third.
There is about 2-3% of the population that adheres to other religions, most of whom
are Christian.

Islam (the name of the religion, whose followers are called Muslims) is a monotheistic
religion, whose holy book is called the Qur'an. The Qur'an is believed to
be the word of God spoken through the prophet Muhammad from 609-632 CE (Common Era
is preferred over AD (Anno Domini or "year of the Lord") since the Islamic
world doesn't believe Jesus was the messiah). Islam believes Muhammad was the
last prophet sent to earth by God, the last in a long line of prophets, which includes
Moses, Abraham, and Jesus among others.

Muslims follow five pillars of their faith: testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting,
and pilgrimage. These pillars, and other tenants of their faith, can give great
structure to their lives as some foods, like pork, are forbidden and every Muslim
is expected to pray five times a day. However, the level of participation in each
of these pillars and to what degree Islam influences an individual's life varies
from person to person and community to community. Generally speaking, Iraq is fairly
conservative in how they practice Islam.

Most Muslims are Sunni, which is the branch of Islam that closely follows the teachings
of Muhammad and accepts Abu Bakr as the first Caliph (a ruler of an Islamic community);
the Sunni Muslims are sometimes referred to Orthodox. Shia Muslims believe only
God can chose who heads the Islamic community and believed it was Ali, Muhammad's
son-in-law who was first chosen; Ali became the first Imam (according to Shia Muslims,
this term only refers to the leaders of the faith, to Sunni Muslims Imam is often
times used in reference to the prayer leader in mosques).